TodaysMeet

www.todaysmeet.com - A twitteresque chatroom.

• Free to use; no signup required.
• Users have 140 characters to use per message.
• Good for creating a 'backchannel' within the classroom.
• Important to set 'acceptable ground rules'. I tell pupils it is easy to monitor who as said what and insist they use their real names (either their own or all 2/3/4 in group).
• Engages those who are reluctant to offer answers verbally.
• Good for collecting prior knowledge as a warm-up activity.
• I use it when annotating a poem - In groups or pairs, pupils analyse a poem and annotate it. I then give my annotations via the Interactive Whiteboard for pupils to add to their poems.
• I then give time if they have anything to add from their own analysis that I have not mentioned to enter it into the todaysmeet room.
• At the end of each stanza, we then review the points they have made.

I've also seen it used effectively in History lessons. The only limit is your creativity.